


Guard Duty

by Tentaculiferous



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canon Universe, Carrying, F/F, Female Characters, Female Relationships, Female-Centric, Femslash, Femslash February, Fire, Forests, Girls Kissing, Guard Duty, Head Injury, Hurt/Comfort, Kissing, Minor Injuries, Protectiveness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-11
Updated: 2014-02-11
Packaged: 2018-01-11 22:34:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1178762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tentaculiferous/pseuds/Tentaculiferous
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mikasa and Sasha have guard duty together. It goes about as well as you could expect...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Guard Duty

Guard duty of the trainee camp was a pretty standard assignment. Typically two senior level trainees would guard the main gate, on a rotation of four hour shifts. 

Nothing about guard duty seemed standard on nights when Mikasa was posted with Sasha. The girl would chatter the whole shift through, no matter how many times Mikasa informed her that she was on duty, and that unnecessary chatter was not allowed. When Sasha wasn't talking endlessly, she was either eating food that Mikasa strongly suspected was stolen, drooling mindlessly in what was probably a sick food fantasy, or attempting to sneak away from Mikasa and abandon her post. Mikasa wasn't sure where she was headed on such nights: to raid the storehouse in the night hours or to sneak back into her warm and inviting bed. Possibly both. Either way, she never got far when Mikasa was around. 

Although it was only autumn, the nights were bitterly cold. In the darkness of the girl's dorm, Mikasa threw a cloak over her shoulders, and ensured her scarf was secure. The cold didn't bother her—the chill was oddly invigorating, a harsh sting that let you know you were alive—but there was no reason to burn energy shivering when food was scarce. 

Sasha's bed was empty. She must have, for once, gotten a prompt start on showing up for her assignment. 

Mikasa headed down the road to the little guard shack. It looked lonely in the dark, and Mikasa realized that the usual lantern that hung from the entranceway was burned out. 

That was strange. She relit it, and began investigating the scene. There were no other guards present—the earlier guards would depart if one of the trainees from the next shift reported in, but Sasha wasn't there. 

Was it some new ruse, to show up for duty and then quickly sneak off before Mikasa showed up and could begin keeping an eye on her? Mikasa shook her head, slowly and deliberately. She believed in having an extremely healthy amount of suspicion, but it was just more likely that Sasha was goofing off or lagging somewhere about camp. She'd likely show up with a loaf of bread to munch on, or a few apples—it was the best season for them after all. One time Sasha had even shown up with a small sack of onions, larcenously obtained. Mikasa, despite seeing a great deal of poverty and hardship in her short life, had never seen someone eat a raw onion before—and not just one, but several.  
It was disturbing to think about somehow, so she put it out of her mind. If she remembered the guard roster properly, the previous guards were Connie and Thomas. It was no surprise they'd let the light burn out without replacing it, and failed to build a fire inside the shack. She searched the inside of the guard shack—it was empty, occupied only by the tiny desk and the hard wooden chair that accompanied it. 

It was also empty of wood and kindling. She went outside, and began carrying the necessary wood inside. Luckily the shack's log pile was still full enough to make a fire. Some of the lazier cadets would go without a fire if they were out of wood, rather than bothering to replenish the shack's pile from the main supply. It appeared that Connie and Thomas were too lazy to make a fire even when the necessary materials were present. 

It didn't take her too long to get a fire ready and roaring. The light and heat it spread throughout the shack was very welcome. That feat accomplished, she turned to the shack's little window and stared at the gate, ready to fly out the door and beat into submission anyone who attempted to traverse the gate without the proper authorization. 

She waited.

And waited. 

Finally, she went outside and looked at the moon. She'd been taught to read time by it by her father, a very long time ago, but she'd kept the knowledge with her, and it had come in handy more than once. Over an hour had passed since she'd began her shift. Still no Sasha.

It appeared that her teammate was as wily as she'd first suspected, and had somehow reported in and then doubled back. Sasha was probably snoozing in their dormroom, safe and sound, with a big idiotic grin on her sleeping face. 

Even worse, because she had no partner on the guard duty, she wouldn't be able to carry wood down from the main pile, because it would mean leaving the post completely unguarded. Leaving her alone on guard duty was one thing; she almost preferred the silence and solitude. But leaving her alone and impairing her ability to complete her duties was another. 

Mikasa was stuck alone for the rest of the shift. She would have to scavange wood from the forest near the shack to keep the fire going, all the while keeping her senses keen for any intruder. (There was highly unlikely to be anyone, she knew, but that was no excuse to slack off.) Their main enemies may have been Titans, but that didn't mean they could ignore dealing with humans. There were plenty of people that would be more than willing to steal food or other valuable supplies from the military if they thought they could get away with it. 

Taking one last glance around to ensure she was alone, she headed off into the forest to begin scrounging wood. She was lucky in that there was a decent amount of tall, thick trees near the shack. The amount of sticks and branches on the ground was good, but most of them were too small to be really useful. Luckily, she had her 3D Maneuver Gear on, as they were supposed to for any active duty. 

It was a small matter for her to launch herself up into a tree, and slice through a few thick branches. She simply let them fall to the ground. She would collect them afterwards, and if they'd broken into smaller pieces, it was all the better. 

After she had sliced a particularly thick branch into three pieces, she began heading back down from the tree. She had almost outpaced the pieces to the ground when she froze in mid-air as they hit. She had only heard two of the hard pieces of wood strike the ground with their characteristic thuds. One had made a hollow, oddly soft, thwumping noise against whatever it had impacted—most certainly not the ground.

Mikasa stayed absolutely still, not even swaying slightly in the breeze. A loud groaning noise erupted from below the tree. Mikasa eyed the ground; the moonlight did little to shed light on whatever was below her—the thick tree cover blocked most of it. She slowly, silently unsheathed her blade once more. Then, with one swift movement, she released the wires and rapidly dropped down from the tree. As she expected, rather than hitting the hard dirt, her fall was broken by something soft—a human. Before the human could recover the breath she had knocked out of them, she had one hand in their hair, keeping their head pulled back and their throat bared. A second later and her blade was at their throat. 

Mikasa ruthlessly dragged them by their soft, silky hair out from under the tree and into the moonlight. One quick glance revealed that her suspicions were correct: the sobbing, wailing person was indeed Sasha Braus. Mikasa released her and sheathed her sword. She waited patiently.

Finally, Sasha realized that she wasn't in imminent danger of being diced up by a serial murderer and actually looked at the person who'd crashed down on her. 

“O-Oh it's you Mikasa...” 

She scrambled to her feet. 

Mikasa began walking away, leaving her behind. 

“Hey, wait up.” Sasha called. 

She quickly followed after her. Or tried to, but taking a log to the head would slow down a better soldier than Sasha Braus. Woozy, she dropped to one knee, pressing one hand against her forehead as if that would restore her blackening vision. It didn't. 

Mikasa turned around. For the first time since she'd fallen on Sasha, she took a good hard look at her. Sasha could be a malingerer at times, but Mikasa didn't doubt her sincerity now. The girl had a sizable lump on her temple and she'd somehow blacked her eye. 

Wordlessly, she held out her arm for Sasha to take. Sasha did nothing though, she didn't even seem to have noticed Mikasa's offer. So Mikasa wrapped one arm around her and pulled her to her feet. Sasha swayed, moaning, and sagged into Mikasa's chest. 

Mikasa tried to walk her back to the shack, but it was no good. Sasha could barely stay on her feet. Finally, she just scooped Sasha up and began carrying her back through the forest. The woods were quiet and peaceful, and Sasha was very warm in her arms. 

They were almost back to the shack when Sasha began mumbling. 

“I wasn't trying to shirk duty or anything...I was just trying to get some kindling, y'know? Then the leaves looked so inviting. I really like our nights together. I wouldn't try to skip out on them for real.”

Mikasa said nothing, she just continued on.

“You believe me, don't you Mikasa?” she asked, plaintively. 

Mikasa wasn't sure she did. Sasha was a very odd girl.  
“My head hurts.” 

Mikasa stopped. Worry had finally begun to creep in. People were so frail. Even an errant piece of timber could hurt them, rattle their heads in ways they could never heal from. There were only a few who were really precious to her, but even that seemed too many to protect. Even one human being was terribly vulnerable, tiny and made of soft flesh that poorly reflected their inner fire and strength. 

“Mikasa, you're squeezing me.” Sasha complained. 

Her eyes were still closed unseeing. Mikasa looked down at her, and it was true: her arms and the considerable strength in them had clenched tight around Sasha, holding on as if for dear life. Mikasa forced herself to relax them. 

She began walking once more. She would get them back to the shack. She would sit Sasha next to the fire, get her warmed up (what had she been thinking, falling asleep in the wilderness in this cold?), wrap her head up with a few strips of cloth torn from her shirt, and then retrieve the cursed pieces of wood she'd cut from the trees earlier. Then she and Sasha could finish out their shift together, and she would walk her to the infirmary afterwards. Or carry her, if need be. 

It went as she planned, except for one small hitch. Once she had Sasha by the fire, wrapped up in Mikasa's cloak and still woozy from the head injury, Mikasa couldn't bear to leave her there unattended, and go back for the wood. 

She couldn't just leave her there, as if it were nothing. She had a temptation, and she had to give into it, consequences be damned. Sasha was too lovely looking, and too frail. She didn't seem frail because she was a girl, or skinny. It was because she was a human being. Everything in life was too fleeting, humans only there for the blink of an eye at best, to pass up what you wanted for stupid reasons. Like, _there's a war going on_ , or _what if she's disgusted by you_. 

Mind made up, Mikasa pressed a tender kiss on Sasha's brow. It might have been a chaste kiss, but it was a firm one, set with all the love and fierce protectiveness that Mikasa had in her. She looked at Sasha expectantly; searching for some sign of reciprocity. A blushed cheek, a smile, pleasure in her eyes... but she saw nothing. Sasha just looked out of it, as she had when Mikasa had decided to kiss her. Had she even noticed? In a way, it was worse than disgust. Disgust let you down, let you know once and for all that what you wanted could not be. 

Disappointed, Mikasa turned away, ready to retrieve the branches as she'd promised herself she'd do. 

She was just at the door when she felt the hand on her wrist. Mikasa froze. She could hardly believe it when she felt the soft, barely-there whisper of a pair of lips ghosting over her hand in a light kiss. 

She turned around. Sasha was there, on her knees and barely managing to stay upright in that position, with that silly grin on her face that Mikasa loved so much. 

“Could...could you help me back to the chair?” she asked.

**Author's Note:**

> Clearly, I like Mikasa carrying people. And taking care of people with head injuries. Both things I think she does in canon at some point or other. Has she done them to Sasha? Probably not. But hey, the series isn't over yet! And even when it is, I will ensure there is lots of Mikasa carrying-head-injuried-Sasha around. 
> 
> As always, any feedback, kind or cutting, is loved ♥


End file.
